Freecycling, also known as Free Recycling, is the act of giving away usable unwanted items to others instead of disposing of them in landfills. The Freecycle Network is made up of 4,775 groups with 7,090,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer and membership is free. The first freecycle was launched on May 1st, 2003 by Deron Beal in Tuscon, Arizona.

The concept is simple: You join the group online and gain access to a message board. You then post what you want to give away or what you are in search of. So without spending a dime, you can get anything you need or get rid of anything you have.

By giving freely with no strings attached, members of The Freecycle Network help instill a sense of generosity of spirit as they strengthen local community ties and promote environmental sustainability and reuse. People from all walks of life have joined together to turn trash into treasure. As a result, 500 tons a day are being kept out of landfills (five times the height of Mt. Everest in the past year alone).

The Freecycle concept has spread to over 85 countries, where there are thousands of local groups representing millions of of members—people helping people and 'changing the world one gift at a time.'[2] There are over four thousand local chapters, and members have passed the 2 million mark.[3] If one’s city is not part of Freecycle, it's easy to establish a new group - the website provides step-by-step instructions to get started.

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